Quotes from Lucius Annaeus Seneca

(c. 4 BC AD 65)

Seneca was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman and

dramatist. He was the tutor and later advisor to Emperor Nero.
He was forced to take his own life for alleged complicity in
the Pisonian conspiracy to assassinate Nero, in which he was
likely to have been innocent.
Stoicism was founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium in the early 3rd century BC. It was the most popular
philosophy in Rome since its founding, as it perfectly reflected its founding values. Seneca is the best
Roman representative of this doctrine.
The stoics believed that happiness did not come from wealth, fame or other fleeting worldly values, but
from virtue. Stoicism teaches that:
- It is important to control ones emotions, for any excessive emotion is destructive.
- The universe is governed for the best by a rational providence, so you should accept your life the
way it is and trust that it will turn out for your good.
- If you cannot change the events of your life, change your attitude, it is the only thing you have a
total control of. Happiness does not depend on the events of life, it depends on our attitude as we
face these events. With that perspective, human suffering should be accepted and has a beneficial
effect on the soul.
- Contentment is achieved through a simple, unperturbed life in accordance with nature and duty to
the state.
- Study and learning are important as they help us understand the order and purpose of life better and
thus enable us to have the best attitude towards life and be happy.

A few quotes from Seneca:

1- Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.

2- True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse
ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that
is so wants nothing. The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is
content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not.

3- Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.

4- All cruelty springs from weakness.

5- Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.

6- Non est ad astra mollis e terris via" - "There is no easy way from the earth to the stars
7- As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.

8- The time will come when diligent research over long periods will bring to light things which now lie
hidden. A single lifetime, even though entirely devoted to the sky, would not be enough for the
investigation of so vast a subject... And so this knowledge will be unfolded only through long successive
ages. There will come a time when our descendants will be amazed that we did not know things that are so
plain to them... Many discoveries are reserved for ages still to come, when memory of us will have been
effaced.

9- You act like mortals in all that you fear, and like immortals in all that you desire

10- If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favorable.

11- It is not that we have so little time but that we lose so much. ... The life we receive is not short but we
make it so; we are not ill provided but use what we have wastefully.

12- We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality.
We suffer more often in imagination than in reality

13- Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.

14- It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.

15- He who is brave is free

16- What need is there to weep over parts of life? The whole of it calls for tears.

17- No man was ever wise by chance

18- They lose the day in expectation of the night, and the night in fear of the dawn.

19- Associate with people who are likely to improve you.

20- He suffers more than necessary, who suffers before it is necessary.

21- Only time can heal what reason cannot.

22- If you really want to escape the things that harass you, what youre needing is not to be in a different
place but to be a different person.

23- Timendi causa est nescire -

Ignorance is the cause of fear.
24- Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power.

25- For what prevents us from saying that the happy life is to have a mind that is free, lofty, fearless and
steadfast - a mind that is placed beyond the reach of fear, beyond the reach of desire, that counts virtue the
only good, baseness the only evil, and all else but a worthless mass of things, which come and go without
increasing or diminishing the highest good, and neither subtract any part from the happy life nor add any
part to it?
A man thus grounded must, whether he wills or not, necessarily be attended by constant cheerfulness and a
joy that is deep and issues from deep within, since he finds delight in his own resources, and desires no
joys greater than his inner joys.

26- Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness.

27- One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood.

28- A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.

29- It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are
difficult.

30- A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer's hand.

31- There is no person so severely punished, as those who subject themselves to the whip of their own
remorse.

32- It is quality rather than quantity that matters.

33- The bravest sight in the world is to see a great man struggling against adversity.
Shall I tell you what the real evil is? To cringe to the things that are called evils, to surrender to them our
freedom, in defiance of which we ought to face any suffering.

34- Love in its essence is spiritual fire.

35- Health is the soul that animates all the enjoyments of life, which fade and are tasteless without it.

36- A kingdom founded on injustice never lasts.

37- As long as you live, keep learning how to live.

38- If you would judge, understand.

39- It is another's fault if he be ungrateful, but it is mine if I do not give. To find one thankful man, I will
oblige a great many that are not so.
40- Be wary of the man who urges an action in which he himself incurs no risk.

41- We should every night call ourselves to an account: what infirmity have I mastered today? what
passions opposed? what temptation resisted? what virtue acquired? Our vices will abate of themselves if
they be brought every day to the shrift.

42- It is more fitting for a man to laugh at life than to lament over it.

43- A quarrel is quickly settled when deserted by one party; there is no battle unless there be two.

44- I will govern my life and thoughts as if the whole world were to see the one and read the other, for
what does it signify to make anything a secret to my neighbor, when to God, who is the searcher of our
hearts, all our privacies are open?

45- Anger, if not restrained, is frequently more hurtful to us than the injury that provokes it.

46- The heart is great which shows moderation in the midst of prosperity.

47- There is no delight in owning anything unshared.

48- We should give as we would receive, cheerfully, quickly, and without hesitation; for there is no grace
in a benefit that sticks to the fingers.

49- The greatest remedy for anger is delay.

50- A physician is not angry at the intemperance of a mad patient, nor does he take it ill to be railed at by
a man in fever. Just so should a wise man treat all mankind, as a physician does his patient, and look upon
them only as sick and extravagant.

51- Expecting is the greatest impediment to living. In anticipation of tomorrow, it loses today.

52- For many men, the acquisition of wealth does not end their troubles, it only changes them.

53- In war, when a commander becomes so bereft of reason and perspective that he fails to understand the
dependence of arms on Divine guidance, he no longer deserves victory.

54- No great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness.

55- There is nothing in the world so much admired as a man who knows how to bear unhappiness with
courage.

56- We become wiser by adversity; prosperity destroys our appreciation of the right.

From: Seneca, The Stoic Philosophy of Seneca: Essays and Letters